Improvement in hand corn-planters



W.. DOUGLASS.

Hand-Seeder.

Patented July 30, 1861.

N, PETERS, PHoTO-LITMUGRAPHER. WASHINGTON. D C.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

WM. DOUGLASS, OF VVESTPORT, MISSOURI.

IMPROVEMENT IN HAND CORN-PLANTERS Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 32,937, dated July 30, 1861.

To all whom t'tmay concern:

Be it known that I, WILLIAM DoUcLAss, of Westport, iu the county ot' Jackson and ,State otMissouri, haveinvcnted anew and Improved Seed-Planter; and I do hereby declare that the I following is a full, clear, and exact description ed by red line z z thereon.

Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in the three tgures.

This invention is an improved hand seedplanter, it being an improvement on the Patent No. 13,820, granted November 20, 1855, wherein the seed is all discharged through one opening from a hopper by means of a common perforated slide and two hinged blades or openrIhe object of my invention is to so construct the machine that the charges of seed'will be divided, and, although planted in one hill, they will be dropped into separate holes, thus obviatng the objection to dropping the seed (corn) in one heap.

To enable those skilled in the art to make and use my invention, I will proceed to describe its construction and operation.

In the accompanying` drawings, A B represent two forked blades, whichJ taper in width from their lower or forked ends to their upper or solid ends. These two pieces A and B are cut out of thin boa-rds,and they are both ofthe same shape and size. Two short metal straps, a a,are secured to the outside edges ofthe forked blade A, and to the projecting ends ot' these pieces a a the blade B is pivoted, vso that when tne two blades are thus connected `by closing the upper ends thereof the lower ends will open slightly, and by openin g the upper ends the lower ends will be closed.

vOn the lowerends of the prongs, inside ofthe blades A B, dat plates b b b b are suitably secured, which project out and form perforators for entering the soil and making holes i'or receiving the seed, which is dropped thrcughthe two forked channels shown iu Fig. l of the drawings.

Below the plates a a., and on each side ot' each prong, a plate, c, is secured to the edge the portion A, and projects over the edges of thc prong on opposite blade, B, but is not secured to this blade B. These plates c c c c serve merely as guards to conduct the seed down into the openings made in the earth by the plates b b b b. The seed is conducted down as far as the plates c c c c and prevented from escaping, except at the lower forked ends, by covering the sides ot' the machine with any suitable iiexilole material, such as leather or oiled cloth, (indicated by letter d in Figs. 1 and 2 of the drawings,) which should be tacked along the edges of the blades A B and extend above the sced-droppin g device. These strips d d should be of such a width as to allow the lower ends of the blades A B to be properly opened and closed. The crotch of the forked channels thusformedis directly below the drop ping device, and forms a division for separat ing eachcharge of seed when dropped, so that one half of the charge will pass down one of the discharging-channels and the other half down the other channel.

The dropping device consists of a seed-slide, g, one end of which is pivoted to the blade B, (shown in Fig. 1,) and the other end passes through a hole made through the blade A into a seed-box, G, which is secured to the outside ofthe blade A. The slideg worksin achannel in the bottom of the seed-box G, and the end ofthe slide gis covered by an inclined board, h,which prevents the seed from getting between the end of the slide g and the side ot' the box G. The slide g has two notches, i t, cut in it, (shown in Figs. 2 and 3 ofthe drawings,) each of which is of such a size as to contain just halfthe quan-S tity ot' seed Vdesired to be planted'at one time. Thechanncl in which the seed-slideg worksis lined with sheet metal, and over the slide g, on the inside of the blade A, a brush, c,is secured, which is used to prevent more than the desired quantity ot' seed from beingm'drawn out of the seed-box G. Slide o is ot' such a width that the seed dropped from the notches i t' through it will fall on each side of the crotch ofthe two discharging-forks, as indicated in red marks in Fig. 2 ofthe drawings. The'blades A B are furnished with handles I) D, which are secured to the upper ends of the blades, and the seedl the soil at the next operation of opening the box G is provided with a sliding cover, as shown in Figs. l and 2 ofthe drawings.

The operation of my machine is as follows: The box G being filled with corn, the cover is closed, and the machine is ready for use. The planter walks along over the field which has been prepared for the reception of the seed, and with the lower forked ends of the lnachine closed he plunges these ends into the soil, and then closes the upper ends of blades A B, as shown in Fig. 1. This operation separates plates b b b b, which form two holes in the earth the proper depth to receive the corn, which is dropped from the machine at the same time the holes are formed in 'the earth. The machine is now lifted up, and the upper ends of the blades A B are again opened, which op eration, as before, draws out the slide g and drops a half-charge of seed in each one of the forked dischargers, ready tobe deposited into e A 32,937 I lower ends of these dischargers. Bythus separating the grains in the hills they will vegetate much more rapidly and uniformly, and none of the grains will be thrown out of the ground by the rapid growth of other grains. Besides, other objections attending the droppingof corn in a heap will be obviated.

Having thus described myinvention,wl1at I claim as new, and desire. to secure by Letters Patent, is-

The forked distributing tubes formed of blades A B and a flexible materia-l, 0l, as herein described, in combination with the double discharging seed-slide g and box G, all arranged and operatingin the manner herein set forth.

WILLIAM DOUGLASS. .Witnesses HENRY F. HEREFORD, JOHN M. BANKS. 

